Wyevale Garden Centres is celebrating reaching a phenomenal £1.7 million in fundraising for Marie Curie, the UK's leading charity for people living with terminal illness and their families. Through the help of its customers and centres across the UK, Wyevale Garden Centres has raised enough to pay for the equivalent of more than 9,000 overnight shifts of care from a Marie Curie Nurse, or 85,000 hours of individual nursing care.

The incredible sum has been raised as part of an ongoing partnership, launched in 2014. The partnership aimed to raise £750,000 for Marie Curie by the end of 2017, but has surpassed that by £1 million.

Over the last four years, the garden centre retail group has hosted a series of projects and team challenges to help raise awareness for Marie Curie's campaigns, including The Great Daffodil Appeal and the Blooming Great Tea Party, which involved tea, cake and fresh-cut daffodils for customers. Generous donations by centre visitors have played a central role in the fundraising project, with a team of Wyevale Garden Centres colleagues also completing the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge in 2017, raising an impressive £17,000 for the cause.

Lindsay Palmer, Charity Champion at Wyevale Garden Centres' Podington branch, said: "When I joined Wyevale Garden Centres' in 2015, I jumped at the chance to help promote and raise awareness for this wonderful charity that helps so many people who are diagnosed with a terminal illness and their families, offering understanding, support and much needed respite care. I take great pride in fundraising on their behalf and am always looking for new ways to raise money, whether it is in our centre or personally."

In September 2017, Lindsay took part in the London Zip Wire experience with one of her colleagues, raising £450 for Marie Curie. Wider activity at the Podington centre included a second-hand book shelf and The Lemon Challenge, as well as regular raffles and kids' tombolas.

Richard Bruce, Director of Marketing at Wyevale Garden Centres, added: "Marie Curie is a charity close to all of our hearts here at Wyevale Garden Centres and for many of our customers too. We are thrilled to see that our fundraising efforts have amounted to such an amazing sum of money - far exceeding what we predicted to achieve in the first three years of the partnership. Thank you to all of our centre staff and customers for their generous donations."

Meredith Niles, Marie Curie's Executive Director of Fundraising and Engagement, said: "We are overwhelmed by the £1.7 million raised for Marie Curie so far, and extremely grateful for the continued support from Wyevale Garden Centres and its customers. The money raised will make a real difference in enabling the charity to help more people living with a terminal illness across the UK get the care and support they need."

Find your local collection point at Wyevale Garden Centres across the UK, and read more about the partnership online at: www.wyevalegardencentres.co.uk